Tammy Baldwin Demands GOP Explain Why They're Trying To ‘Rip-Away Healthcare’ With Potential Medicaid Cuts

yesterday

In Senate floor remarks on Thursday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) slammed the GOP budget resolution.

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Transcript

00:00Senator from Wisconsin. Madam President, I rise today on behalf of the 1.2

00:07million Wisconsinites who rely on Medicaid, or as we call it in Wisconsin,

00:13BadgerCare, for their health insurance. And I rise today in their defense

00:19because their health care is under attack. I really want to focus right now

00:26kind of taking off where Senator Durbin left off, talking about our children, our

00:34babies. One in three children in Wisconsin rely on Medicaid for their

00:40health insurance. That's one in three children in Wisconsin's urban, suburban,

00:46and rural counties who need Medicaid just to see a doctor, to get regular

00:52checkups, or to get vaccines, and to stay healthy. I've traveled across Wisconsin

01:00meeting with constituents who are terrified about what these cuts will

01:06mean for their families, their finances, and their health. And I'd like to share a

01:13few of those stories with you this evening. I think about people like Megan

01:19from Wisconsin, a single mother of two young children who relies on Medicaid so

01:25that her kids can get regular checkups and see the dentist. She reached out to

01:31me to share that without Medicaid, her entire paycheck would go to just keeping

01:37her children healthy, with nothing left over to pay for rent or keep food on the

01:43table. I heard from Shelly in Lake Holcomb, Wisconsin, who reached out to me

01:50about her 17-year-old daughter, Chloe. Chloe was diagnosed with leukemia last

01:56October. Chloe receives chemotherapy five days a week, and her parents drive her

02:04almost an hour each way to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, so that she can get the

02:10treatments that she needs. Without Medicaid, the cost of Chloe's treatment

02:16would force Shelly and parents like her to make an impossible choice between

02:21financial ruin or not getting the care that they need for their children. I've

02:30also heard from dozens of Wisconsin families whose children live with

02:34disabilities. They are terrified of what financial cuts will mean for their kids'

02:40future and their family's finances. Jennifer in Wauwatosa wrote to my

02:46office about her son, Will. Will is a 15-year-old sophomore at Wauwatosa West,

02:53who she described as vibrant and loving. Will also has Down syndrome, which, among

03:01other medical care, has meant that he's needed a total of 11 ear tube

03:08surgeries just so that he can hear. Jennifer wrote me that the math on those

03:17costs to their family is pretty simple. 11 surgeries, which cost $10,000 each,

03:25without insurance, would cost her family $110,000. She said without Medicaid, she

03:34and her husband would struggle to give their children the lives they deserve,

03:39including paying for their other son's college tuition. She wrote, if Medicaid

03:45is cut, we will struggle financially. We will not be able to get Will the

03:51support he needs to be independent, to get a job and go to college. It could

03:57even mean one of us having to leave our full-time employment, which could hurt

04:02even more. Please don't cut Medicaid, she said. I also heard from Brooke in Thorpe,

04:09Wisconsin. She shared that because of Medicaid and the speech therapy for her

04:15four-year-old son that he receives, she has, for the first time this year, heard

04:24his voice utter more than one syllable. Imagine that. She wrote, and I quote, it

04:32marks the first time I have been called mom by him, and I have heard I love you

04:40come from him three times, all occurring in the last 12 months. He receives speech

04:47therapy five days a week to learn how to express himself, to process emotions, and

04:53to regulate. This has changed his life, and these therapies are paid for by

05:01Medicaid. Don't allow people like me to only hear love you a handful of times

05:09simply because of a budget cut. We can talk about the number of children who

05:15will be impacted by cuts to Medicaid, a total of over 30 million nationwide. While

05:24that number is staggering, it's important to remember that every single child who

05:30relies on Medicaid has a story like Chloe's or Will's, and they have parents

05:37like Megan and Brooke who just want what's best for their children and are

05:44terrified about their future if Medicaid is taken away. If my colleagues on the

05:53Republican side want to go through with cuts, the ones laid out in the House's

05:59budget plan, it's these families Republicans must answer to. Donald Trump

06:06and congressional Republicans can explain why they are planning to rip

06:11away health care for children so that the top 1% can get richer. I, for one,

06:20would like them to answer for the chaos, for the fear, for the heartache they are

06:28causing families in my state. I yield.

06:31I yield.

Tammy Baldwin Demands GOP Explain Why They're Trying To ‘Rip-Away Healthcare’ With Potential Medicaid Cuts

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